the perfect summer cupcake

As I was pondering what to bake yesterday, I was having trouble settling on a recipe. Cookies? No, it didn't feel like a cookie day. Chocolate cupcakes? No it didn't feel like a chocolate kind of day. Something lemony? No, I have already used lots of lemons this week, time for a change.

Then, I received a text from a friend, requesting the recipe for a white chocolate & cream cheese frosting that I have. This was just the inspiration I needed.

These cupcakes have summer written all over them. The light vanilla sponge, topped with chilled white chocolate & cream cheese frosting which has a perfectly smooth texture, finished off with a fresh strawberry. Oh yum.

The Summer Cupcake

ingredients makes 15

115g unsalted butter, room temperature

115g caster sugar

115g self raising flour

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

frosting ingredients

175g white chocolate 

175g cream cheese (I highly recommend Philadelphia)

6 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

6 tbsp creme fraiche

1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas mark 4. 

2) Cream the butter & sugar until soft & fluffy

3) Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined

4) Stir in the vanilla extract

5) Sift in the flour & combine

6) Fill cupcake cases with a heaped dessertspoon of mixture / enough to fill 2/3 of case.

7) Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 mins until lightly golden on top

for the frosting

1) Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until just melted

2) In a separate bowl, beat together the remaining ingredients. It will look lumpy at first, just continue beating for a little longer.

3) Stir in the melted chocolate with a spatula 

4) Spoon onto the cooled cakes, top with a strawberry, then place in fridge to set for 1 hour. 

(The frosting is runny when freshly made which means that it covers the surface of the cupcake perfectly and you don't get spreading marks. In my impatience, I chilled the frosting for about 20 mins while the cupcakes cooled - it was still a lovely consistency, but didn't slide onto the cakes in quite the same way.)